Khaki Pants, a Sport Jacket, and Finally Some Winning Stuff On The Field…
Khaki Pants, a Sport Jacket, and Finally Some Winning Stuff On The Field…
The Cast
By The Fillerbuster
October 29, 2025
As I have mentioned, with my busy work schedule, workout schedule because I am now 52, piano, travel, wife, and dog time, I need to be inspired to write one of these. It might be a legend dying, a controversial take I hear from friends or in the headlines, or, in this case, a resurgence of a football “power.” When I had the idea to write this, my fraternity brother said to contact my other fraternity brother, who recorded an entire DVD on the history of UVA football. That is a little much for me, so, just so you know, I decided to go on my foggy memory of college, no real research on the subject, and just feelings that I am feeling about the present state of UVA football. Short, and sweet, as always. Who am I kidding? My blogs are never short and sweet. I am just going to start typing…
When I applied to the University of Virginia in fall of 1990, I had the accolades to get into a lot of schools. Just being honest. I drove through Princeton, since it was down the road from me in Jersey. It didn’t seem like a fit (looking back at what I became, DEFINITELY not). I thought about Stanford, but at the time, I wasn’t tired of the East Coast. A lot of my friends were going to Rutgers, Trenton State, and Delaware, but I needed to break out. I was the confusing mix of nerd and jock in high school, and needed a fresh start. I also knew I wanted to go South for some weird reason. So, it came down to Vandy and UVA (oddly, I already hated Duke even before going to UVA). I got into Vandy, and was close to pulling the trigger, when my brother ran a very thick envelope to me at tennis practice. It was the UVA acceptance letter. Case closed.
But, let’s take a step back into my pre-college mind. What were my needs at the college I would go to? When we are young, no matter how smart you are academically, you aren’t very smart on decisions. Now, the endgame is that it was the best decision of my life, hands down. But, how I got there WAS sort of immature admittedly. I wanted a school with three things. It had to be top 20 in three categories. Academics, partying, and sports. Academically, UVA is always near the top, and still is. Whether you are talking schools overall or just public ones, it fit the bill. Check. My dad had a stash of Playboys that I found as a kid, and that provided me with the party information in secret. In 1989 or 1990, I believe it came in somewhere in the top 10. Good enough. Check. Sports, and this circles around to the point of this blog, was also very big at UVA. My criteria was that I wanted a school that was good enough at most sports that I could watch it as an older fellow (see, I DID look ahead in life for one thing). At the time in 1990, they were #1 for a couple of short weeks in football. And, they seemed to be pretty good in the other sports too, even if I only cared about the basketball and football rankings at the time. That sentence is highly sarcastic, as they won 3 of 4 soccer championships when I was there, so very good at that too. The irony of this whole story is that the sports I excelled at, tennis and swimming, they were so bad that I could have made both teams. I didn’t try and will never know, of course. But, THAT comes full circle in this argument, because both of those teams are perennial championships national title contenders, so that would have been pretty cool to say these last few years. “Yeah, they won again? I swam for UVA back in the day.” But, I digress.
Even though they were never #1 again during my time at UVA, we had some of the best football players ever to suit up play during my time or shortly before or after. Tiki Barber, Chris Slade, Terry Kirby, Shawn Moore, then later, Chris Long, D’Brickashaw Ferguson, Anthony Poindexter, and Thomas Jones. And don’t forget about Matt Schaub.
So what happened for my years at college? My memory is cloudy, but all I remember is George Welsh running it up the middle on 3rd and 8 every time, finally breaking a 30 game losing streak to Clemson, the FSU win, and lots of 7-4 and 8-3 seasons.
Tony Elliott (current coach) needed some time and patience (which we had plenty available after the last 25 years), but has UVA football back to where it needs to be. Sure, we needed a safety to beat a bad Washington State team, barely beat The Hoodie, and play in the weak ACC. But, we can only beat the teams in front of us, and The Peach Bowl every five years might be no more. We are respectable, offensively talented, and perhaps a force to be reckoned with. So proud they are somewhat back.
A little more history while I am rambling. Our fraternity house had a residence across the street named Bill. Not The Bill, just Bill. It has, or at least had, goal posts in the middle of it. They are the goal posts that I helped tear down and carry back to the fraternity house back in 1995. Yes, I was THAT frat guy. Why the title? My mom didn’t understand how she kept buying me the needed Dockers khakis every few weeks, not understanding that I would roll down Scott Stadium’s hill after wins and get covered with knee cuts and grass stains. Sorry, Mom. She doesn’t read this anymore, so all good. But, a sport jacket, khakis, and some hidden booze were the rules of UVA football games. And a date, until the girl realized that you were THAT frat guy. So eventually, unless you scored yourself a girlfriend, just the other things.
Here are some more reasons how things have come full circle in my life. I married an OU girl. THAT is a real football atmosphere, and I have been lucky enough to attend many games in Norman, OK. I personally watched Baker Mayfield BECOME Baker Mayfield. Scott Stadium and UVA weren’t that, but we still had our thing. Our special thing. Here is the real crazy part of this year. Our present QB, and my wife didn’t even recognize the name when she heard it initially, is Chandler Morris. He was an OU QB at one time, and you can tell by his mannerisms, his playing style, and his size, that he has a little Baker in him. Chip on his shoulder, and so perfect. But, the fact that UVA has an old OU guy, and that I am in an OU family by marriage…is pretty cool. Don’t tell my wife either that UVA has a better record than OU right now.
Hopefully, since I try to write “longer lasting” posts, this ages well. Cal, Wake, at Duke (the toughest game), and home for VA Tech. I see us winning all of them. Then, probably Tony and Company will see Georgia Tech in the conference title game. Then, off to the College Football Playoff to run the table. Sorry, I got a little carried away there, but I will definitely be watching Rocky and Hoosiers by that time, if it gets close. Who am I kidding? I watch those flicks regardless all the time.
Anyway, there is MY history of UVA football. Wahoowa, hope you enjoyed, and I still have a good looking sport jacket and khakis if it happens. Who am I kidding? I STILL wear those things at age 52. I would wait to post this, and add some more flavor, but I already have another blog in the hopper. I could give you player names and stats, but just go to the paid people on sports sites to do that. All you need from MY blog is an odd angle, and my personal touch, as I have some stories during my life. Just know I have watched three full games, and we are LEGIT. Or, as legit as we have been since I have been in college.
Remember, if you can’t spot the sucker in the first 30 minutes at the table, you ARE the sucker. What did one shepherd say to the other shepherd? Let’s get the flock out of here.
(That was ironically the guy who made the DVD lol)
